Perhaps there is. Perhaps there isn't.
The state of the evidence is such that using the term "denies" is very concerning - it's the job of investigators to relentlessly attack unproven hypotheticals. That's not denial - that's science.
Dark matter and energy is a plug to hide the fact that the Big Bang Theory (not the TV show) is DEAD WRONG.
The final nail in the coffin should have been when the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which discovered evidence of the Higgs Boson . . . showed NOTHING in the energy range where they expected (hoped) to find dark matter.
Atheist Stephen Hawking’s entire career, like his life, is built upon a big fat error.